The question arises whether logic was given to us by God or whether it
is the result of human evolution. I believe that at least the modus
ponens rule ( A and if A then B implies B) is inherent in humans, but
probably many other modern systems (e.g., resource logic, non -
monotonic logic etc.) are the result of humans adapating to the
environment. It is therefore of interest to study and compare the way
logic is used in ancient cultures as well as the way logic is going to
be used in our 21st century. This welcome book studies and compares the
way formation of logic in three cultures: Ancient Greek (4th century
B.C.), Judaic (1st century B.C. - 1st century A.D.) and Indo-Buddhist
(2nd century A.D.) The book notes that logic became especially popular
during the period of late antiquity in countries covered by the
international trade of the Silk Road. This study makes a valuable
contribution to the history of logic and to the very understanding of
the origions and nature of logical thinking. -Prof. Dov Gabbay, King's
College London, UK
Andrew Schumann in his book demonsrates that logic step-by-step arose in
different places and cultural circles. He argues that if we apply a
structural-genealogical method, as well as turn to various sources,
particularly, religious, philosophical, linguistic, etc., then we can
obtain a more general and more adequate picture of emengence and
development of logic. This book is a new and very valuable contribution
to the history of logic as a manifestation of the human mind. - Prof.
Jan Wolenski, Jagiellonian University, Poland
The author of the Archaeology of Logic defends the claim, calling it
"logic is aftter all", which sees logical competence as a practical
skill that people began to learn in antiquity, as soom as they realized
that avoiding cognitive biases in their reasoning would make their daily
activities more successful. The in-depth reading of the book with its
diving into the comparative quotations in the long dead or hardly known
to most of us languages like Sumerian-Akkadian, Aramatic, Hebrew and
etc, will be rewarded by the response that the logical competence is
diverse and it can be trained, despite the inevitabilitiy of the
reasoning fallacies; and that critical discussions and agaonal character
of the social lide are the necessary tools for that. - Prof. Elena
Lisanyuk
